SHILOH 
ADDRESS 



BY 



SENATOR 
ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE 



14 



ADDRESS 



ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE 

United States Senator from Indiana 



(" Representing Indiana, The Indiana Shiloh National Park 
Commission and Indiana's Union Soldiers." — Program) 



DEDICATION OF INDIANA'S MONUMENTS 

ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF SHILOH, 

TENNESSEE, APRIL 6, 1903 



afc 



PRESS OF 

Levey Bro's & Co. 

INDIANAPOLIS 






p. 
2tS»03 



SHILOH ADDRESS. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: 

Since all must die, how fortunate to 
die for an undying cause and under the 
approving eye of history. 

So fell those who fell on this field. 
For they gave their lives to save the life 
of the Nation, and history recites no 
nobler story than the story of their sac- 
rifice. 

They; thus are the subject not only of 
our pride and love, but of our envy. 
For it is not given to us so to close the 
volume of our years; and if it were, we 
dare not say that we would meet that op- 
portunity as they met it. 

That the ground they stood and fought 
on may be marked and that our children 
may be worthy of the heroes sleeping 
here, Indiana builds these monuments. 
Not that she would rear warriors — for we 
pray for peace — but that she would have 
her sons develop souls so great that the 



SHILOH ADDRESS. 

giving of their lives for a worthy cause 
will be to them a welcome thing. 

And' such were the souls of our fathers 
and brothers, who, on this field, on this 
spot, paid that price for our Nation's 
immortality. 

For their blood was shed to make of 
the American people a single Nation, and 
not for any lesser purpose. Other results 
of our civil conflict were incident to that. 
And so they died no less for the people 
of the South than for the people of the 
North — for the American People undi- 
vided, indivisible. Their martyrdom was 
to establish forever the brotherhood of 
the flag — a relationship so lofty that it 
can not see sections within the bound- 
aries of the Republic. 

That purpose they accomplished. De- 
votion to the Nation is today the first 
principle of all Americans. In our re- 
cent war the proudest to wear the Na- 
tion's uniform were the sons of those 
who on this field met in arms their North- 



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ern brothers; the first to die beneath the 
flag was a son of Carolina. And the giv- 
ing of one's life is the highest proof of 
loyalty. Exhausted in arms but by arms 
unconquered, the Southern people have 
yielded to a great and true idea. That 
idea is American nationality. 

To me the thought of a people, a na- 
tion, a master nation devoted to ideals, 
is so vast and fine that even the simplest 
words are not strong enough to state it. 
And that was the thought our heroes died 
for. And that ideal fought on for them. 
It is now the ideal of us all, men and 
women of North and South alike. 

How little these words — Southern and 
Northern! Let us forget them. How 
much grander the single word, American! 
Let us think of that, and only that. Let 
us who live be worthy of our dead. 

And let us who live be tolerant of the 
views of the heroes of the other side. 
Only the years can tell what elements of 
just opinion were confused and tangled in 



SHILOH ADDRESS. 

that cataelysmal conflict. For us it is 
enough — a fullness — to know that our 
central thought of nationality was true 
and that our brothers of the other side as- 
sert it now even as we ourselves assert 
it. Tolerance, then, and loving kindness, 
and charitable forgiveness on both sides; 
and through all the land sweet reason- 
ableness! Nothing but these are impor- 
tant; for in these abides Truth, and 
Truth is the only sovereign. 

War, at best, is awful. Yet this word 
can be said even for war — it reveals ele- 
mental and eternal things. In peace, 
men reckon action, plan and purpose 
from the central point of selfish interest. 
War comes, and the same men are con- 
scious of a thing which can not be meas- 
ured by yardstick, nor weighed in scales, 
nor listed in stock market; and yet a 
thing for which they go to the grave as 
to a bride — glad, grand, masterful in a 
savage unselfishness. That wonderful 
thing which makes men welcome death 



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is principle. In war's light they see it. 
Our heroes who sleep here saw it. God 
grant us their joy of seeing, without their 
agony of battle. Not that they found it 
hard to die — they did not — but horrible 
to slay. 

For the moment, at least, standing with 
their graves around us, we may measure 
the height of their outlook — the breadth 
of their thought. And, as we measure, 
how little, transient, foolish seem men's 
plots for power, plans for place, schemes 
for self-aggrandizement! How they dis- 
solve into nothingness and only the true, 
the beautiful and the good remain! It 
is holy ground on which we stand. 

I speak for Indiana soldiers. There- 
fore I submit no statistics of comparative 
carnage. Whether more men were killed 
here, or there, in Caesar's conquests, or 
Napoleon's wars, or Alexander's battles, 
or on our own sad, red fields is not im- 
portant. History shows that mankind in 
all ages and in all lands have been phys- 



SHI L OH ADDRESS. 

ically courageous. The cause, the thought, 
the principle, the ideal for which they 
fought, is the real thing. That is what 
Indiana's soldiers think. That is how I 
interpret Indiana's mind. 

In the presence of our heroes dead, sur- 
rounded by our heroes living, how dare 
I interpret their supreme sentiment 
otherwise? 

For Indiana's veterans, in common with 
all the people of our State, believe that 
nothing is worth fighting for that is not 
worth dying for; and that nothing is 
worth dying for but Truth. Such is our 
Indiana view of peace and war. For In- 
diana's people are neither rich nor poor, 
neither covetous, nor envious, nor cring- 
ing, nor brawlers, nor afraid. They 
are sturdy, gentle people, living simply, 
eager for noble teaching; and knowing, 
when called on in righteousness, how to 
give battle and how to die. 

And in this we take no peculiar pride. 
We take pride only in that we share this 

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SHILOH ADDRESS. 

view with all Americans. For we Indi- 
ana people are national above all else. 

I said I spoke for Indiana soldiers. But 
you who live and these who died were not 
Indiana soldiers — you and they were 
Union soldiers — the Nation's soldiers — ■ 
from Indiana. We have a State flag. Not 
many of Indiana's 2,500,000 people 
know what it is. But every one of Indi- 
ana's people know the Stars and Stripes. 
Every one of them would die for it. It 
is the Nation's flag — it is our flag, our 
only flag. 

Let it similarly be the only flag of every 
State. Let others be forgotten. 

When thinking of the Nation let Caro- 
lina forget her Palmetto banner, dear 
though it be with memories, and remem- 
ber only the banner of the Nation! Let 
Texas forget her Lone Star ensign, sa- 
cred though it be with tradition, and 
remember only the flag of our common 
country! Let Massachusetts forget her 
pine tree device and remember only the 
colors of the Eepublic! 

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SHILOH ADDRESS. 

States are invaluable for local govern- 
ment; but with this battlefield before us 
we can not see State lines — our eyes are 
too full of tears. We forget that ever 
there were sections; and, whether we will 
or no, our very souls cry out two words 
—"Nation !"— "American !" 

Yes, that is it! — the American Nation! 
We have found ourselves at last. And it 
is because our heroes died here that we 
have come to the consciousness of that 
fact — the American People, a Nation, 
one, indivisible, everlasting. And you, 
and I, and all of us are parts of that Na- 
tion. That is enough. If those who rest 
here know that we have comprehended 
that thought — and they do know it — they 
are glad. It is enough for any man to 
die for. How blessed of the Father, 
therefore, are we who may live for that 
thought! 

And we do not live worthily of it, if 
we do not consecrate our Nation to 
righteousness. But how shall we tell 

12 



SHILOH ADDRESS. 

what is righteous and what is unright- 
eous? We believe differently, and, with 
all our souls, sincerely. To one it seems 
God's work to give order and law, and, 
by slow processes, so that they may see 
and understand, liberty and civilization 
to alien and inferior peoples. To another, 
such a course seems wrong. To one, a 
certain internal policy seems best; to an- 
other, it appears indefensible. Honest 
opinion daily divides us on both principle 
and expediency. 

How shall we tell which is right? 
Who is to decide? Patience! God will 
decide. No harsh words! No denunci- 
ation! Trust the common thought and 
conscience. Trust the people. "Vox 
populi, vox Dei." If, in the long run, 
that maxim is not true, republican gov- 
ernment, democratic institutions, the 
rule of the people is a mistake. And the 
people's government is not a mistake. 

With this thought, then, we meet all 
problems, troubles, dangers, doubts, se- 

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SHILOH ADDRESS. 



rene and brave. Conflict of capital and 
labor, foreign wars, domestic broils, agi- 
tation and nnrest, vexed questions and 
situations so grave that no key to them 
seems possible — all will yield to the mas- 
ter key made of the combined sense and 
conscience of the American people. To 
doors so solidly shut that opening ap- 
pears hopeless, Time will fit and turn 
that master key. Time and the people 
— they will make all plain and right at 
last in this Republic of ours. Time and 
the people, and, over all, the Father — 
who can doubt our outcome, remember- 
ing them? Who, remembering them, can 
cherish hate? Who, remembering them, 
can be bigoted or despairing? "With 
malice toward none, with charity for all" 
— these are the best American words. 
Let us live up to them and be patient! 
Let us live up to them and be hopeful! 
Live up to them, and realize our broth- 
erhood. Thus, and only thus, shall we 
be worthy of him who spoke them and of 
these fallen ones. 



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SHILOH ADDRESS 



On behalf of Indiana and of Indiana's 
Shiloh Monument Commission, I salute 
Indiana's soldiers, dead and living — all 
and every one, from private to command- 
er; from him of name obscure to Wilder 
and Wallace, who still inspire us with 
their presence, and Hovey, Hackleman 
and Harrison, gone before. And in the 
name of Indiana soldiers — the Nation's 
soldiers — voicing a fraternity as noble as 
their courage, I salute, too, their former 
foes in arms, but now their comrades — 
comrades in the comradeship of this new 
day which has dawned for the Republic. 



15 



1903 



